This solution works with WIX 3.11. To harvest an entire directory, you can use Heat from the WIX toolset. With Heat we can automatically include all files from a given source directory on every build. To do that we first need to edit the Setup.wixproj: Define the Harvestpath for Heat: <PropertyGroup> <DefineConstants>HarvestPath=…\Deploy</DefineConstants> </PropertyGroup> Heat will … Read more
There’s an example in the WiX tutorial: https://www.firegiant.com/wix/tutorial/getting-started/where-to-install/ <Property Id=”INSTALLDIR”> <RegistrySearch Id=’AcmeFoobarRegistry’ Type=”raw” Root=”HKLM” Key=’Software\Acme\Foobar 1.0′ Name=”InstallDir” /> </Property> Of course, you’ve got to set the registry key as part of the install too. Stick this inside a component that’s part of the original install: <RegistryKey Key=”Software\Software\Acme\Foobar 1.0″ Root=”HKLM”> <RegistryValue Id=”FoobarRegInstallDir” Type=”string” Name=”InstallDir” Value=”[INSTALLDIR]” /> … Read more
Update, Stein Åsmul: Injecting this newer list of cleanup approaches. Find your package in C:\Windows\Installer, where Windows keeps copies of installed MSI packages. The names are generated randomly, so you’ll have to look at the creation dates of the files. Open the MSI file with Orca. (Unfortunately there is no simple download for the orca … Read more
Windows installers cannot be built to target Any CPU, I typically build twice, with the managed code being set to Any CPU, whilst the installer has two configurations x86 and x64. You may find you need to create the configurations, this can be done by right clicking on the solution and selecting configuration manager then … Read more
To answer your first question, there are no hard and fast rules for this. So it is not a must to update your WIX bundle version and match that with your MSI version. As for the second question, am not really sure. But you can try this binder variable: !(bind.packageVersion.PackageID) EDIT replace PackageID with the … Read more
We also encountered this problem where lower-versioned DLLs were not getting reinstalled on a major upgrade. I thought it was strange that the installer would decide which files to install based on the versioning of existing files, then completely uninstall everything, but still only install what what files had been determined to install before uninstalling … Read more
Rather than conditionally including the opening Directory elements (which invalidates the XML), conditionally set preprocessor variables which are used as directory names, as @Daniel Pratt’s comment refers to. Similarly, having a “yes/no” variable conditioned on platform makes it easy to set up 64 bit components, registry searches, etc. Defining the variables (From this answer) <?if … Read more
The overall concept of MSI is that there is a 1:1 mapping between a component GUID (unique identifier) and an absolute path (install location / key path). The full path, including file name if any (a directory can be the key path for a component). See update below for a new Wix feature to deal … Read more
You can use the relative path like so: <File Id=”Bla.exe” Source=”..\bin\Debug\Bla.exe” KeyPath=”yes” Checksum=”yes”/> OR You can add a configuration file to your project to define common variables. To do so, add a new “WiX Include” file to your project, call it config.wxi. Then in your include file, you can define a SourceDir variable like so: … Read more
It’s part of Windows Installer XML (WiX) an open source project formerly from Microsoft but since transferred to the Outercurve Foundation. It can be found on CodePlex. 3.7 is the latest release. This interop assembly is part of Deployment Tools Foundation (DTF) and you’ll find an SDK help file installed in the start menu. The … Read more